


Catelo

by GemmaRose



Series: Inhuman [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Biology, Aliens, Alpha/Beta/Omega terminology, Bad Decisions, Coming Out, Cuddling & Snuggling, Disassociation, Drowning, Dubious Science, Family Secrets, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Near Death Experiences, Pain, Protective Siblings, Reunions, Secrets, Shapeshifting, Sibling Love, Siblings, Sleepy Cuddles, Transformation, Transitioning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-24 04:16:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14347785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: Every family has secrets. After reuniting with Matt, Pidge discovers that their family's secrets are significantly bigger than most.Art by the incredibleSAon tumblr.





	1. Chapter 1

“Got everything?” Pidge asked, eyeing the small bag thrown over Matt’s shoulder.

“Haven’t had much of a chance to collect stuff, way out here.” he shrugged.

“Took a while, for so little stuff.” Pidge rocked up on their tip-toes, head tilting as they tried to get a better look at the bag. “What’s in there?”

“Nothing much, really. Spare comm, tablet, couple of cool rocks.” Matt reached into a pocket apparently sewn into the inside of his cloak, and pulled out an envelope. “I just had to write up a note for Dad.”

For Dad? Pidge frowned, and Matt chuckled. “My friends promised to rescue him if they got the chance, and if he follows the code to here and I’m not here anymore...” he trailed off, and waved the envelope. “I’m not going to make him worry about me.”

“Like you made me worry, you jerk?” Pidge slugged him in the shoulder, and Matt pulled them into a one armed hug against his chest.

“But I was _here_.” he said softly, running a hand over the back of their helmet. “When Dad gets here, I’ll be gone.”

Oh. They hadn’t thought about that, the fact that they’d be leaving this base empty and abandoned and when Dad arrived he’d find signs of a fight and no signs of life. If they’d arrived to a scene like that... they would’ve assumed this was where Matt had died, before being buried under his comm. To let Dad think that, to give him hope with the coded coordinates and then take it away, they couldn’t imagine anything more painful.

“Katie?” Matt crouched slightly, wiping at the corner of their eye with his thumb to brush away a tear they hadn’t noticed forming. “It’s alright, I’m leaving him the number for my spare comm, so he can track it to us.”

“Oh, I can do one better than that!” Pidge exclaimed, pulling away and holding a hand over the glowing lines which let them materialise their bayard. They shut their eyes, willing away the waiting tears as they reached for Green, picturing the little machines Allura gave out to leaders of the planets that joined the Coalition. An unfamiliar object pressed into their palm, and they grinned as they held it up. It sure looked right, and a little green Voltron symbol glowed just under the button.

“Please tell me you know how that works.” Matt breathed, eyes all but literally sparkling.

“Nope.” Pidge grinned cheerfully, and Matt popped the envelope open to extract the letter.

“One second, lemme grab a pen.” he thrust the paper at them, and Pidge scanned the lines already written in Matt’s familiar messy scrawl.

Hi, Dad! So, first things first, I’m safe. Sorry about the graveyard thing, Katie’s informed me it was a total dick move. She’s out here too, and actually the reason I’m not here anymore. You can track my spare comm by scanning the code icon up at the top of the paper, and we’ll tell you everything when we meet up.

Not a huge letter, but really when he was handing Dad his new number it didn’t have to be.

“Got it!” Matt crowed, and held out a pen to them. “Here, add in a bit about your thing so he knows what it is.” Pidge took the pen, and Matt shouldered his bag again. “I’m gonna go space that bounty hunter we fried.”

“Alright.” Pidge nodded, eyeing the blank space and considering what to put there.

Matt paused, a strange expression coming over his face. “Should I be worried that you’re okay with that?”

“Should I be worried that you suggested it?” Pidge countered, and Matt’s expression turned thoughtful for a moment before he shrugged with a noncommittal sound.

“Fair enough.”

Pidge sat down as their brother walked off, and frowned at the paper. There was so much they wanted to tell Dad, about being a Paladin and how awesome and terrifying and _fulfilling_ it was, but they should probably keep their note short, like Matt’s.  There’s a whole bunch of stuff that I can hardly wait to tell you about, and things I wanna show you, and people to introduce you to. If Matt doesn’t pick up, or you need a lift to get to us, use the comm I’m leaving here. It’s a direct line to\- they paused, frowning as they prodded Green. How did the thing work, actually? None of the ones Allura gave out had ever been used, as far as they knew.

Once the answer came, Pidge scratched out the last few words. It’ll send out a signal to Voltron, and one of us will call back to make sure it’s you. If it’s not me or Matt or Shiro, well, they’ll probably recognize you because you’re Dad, me and Matt look a lot like you, but if they ask who gave you the comm say Pidge. Not all of the team knows me as Katie.

They signed their name under Matt’s at the bottom of the page, and folded the paper back up to slide into the envelope again. Once it was situated on a prominent bit of the control console, they headed over to the circular landing pad under the open door. The open door Matt was leaning halfway through, his face obscured by the solid faceplate of his helmet. “Ready to blow this dump?”

“Born ready.” they grinned, utilising the lowered gravity of the entryway to leap up to Matt’s level without activating their jetpack.

The flight back to Olkarion should only take an hour or so, as long as they didn’t take any detours. Pidge wasn’t sure if they hoped the rest of the team were there when they got back or not. If the others were there, then they could introduce Matt to them and show him around the castle. If not, they could show him around Olkarion and watch his face when a ship the size of a small skyscraper descended from the sky.

“So, where’d you park?” Matt asked as they settled their feet on the ground outside the secret entrance.

“Over that way.” Pidge gestured.

“I can hardly believe you didn’t have to get someone else to fly you here.” Matt teased, rubbing a hand over the top of their helmet. “Seems like you haven’t grown an inch since we left.”

“Maaaaaatt.” they groaned, but smiled all the same. Lance was like a brother to them, but Matt... well, he’d been their brother since before they were born. Nothing could compare to that.

“Just wait til you meet Green.” they grinned, gripping Matt by the wrist and pushing off towards the mouth of the cave. “She’s gonna love you.”

“I-” Matt stopped, then chuckled as Pidge activated the jetpack on their suit for a second to give them a bit of a boost. “I’m going to guess you mean the huge green robot cat parked over there?”

“She’s a lion, but yeah.” Pidge nodded as Green lowered her head, mouth open and ready to catch both of them. It went flawlessly, much better than the catch during the earlier firefight had, and Pidge tugged Matt through the airlock before pulling their helmet off. “Hey, girl.” they grinned up at the ceiling, patting one of the ladder legs. Green’s curiosity curled around them like vines, leaning towards Matt as if he were sunlight.

“This is Matt.” they said, cheeks aching just slightly from the force of their smile. They brought their picture to mind, the one tucked into a corner of Green’s dashboard, then focused briefly on the memories they’d called on to get through the search for their big brother. Green rumbled in understanding, a sound that reminded them somehow of trees growing, and they grabbed a rung of the ladder as they flashed Matt a grin. “C’mon, the cockpit’s up this way.”

“Does that happen often?” Matt asked as he followed them up to the second floor. “The whole, talking to the ship thing.”

“Kinda?” Pidge shrugged. “The Lions are alive, so it’s not like when you yelled at the appliances back home.”

“I still maintain that our old microwave hated me.” Matt muttered as they fell into Green’s pilot seat and promptly realized a problem. There was nowhere for Matt to _sit_ during the flight back to the castle.

Green nudged at their mind like swaying branches, and Pidge tilted their head as a sequence of buttons lighting up on the dash came to mind. “If you say so.” they murmured, and leaned forward to tap the icons in the order Green had specified. The Lion roared, rearing up on her hind legs, and Pidge’s eyes widened as a glowing circle of blue appeared some distance in front of them.

“Holy-!”

“I didn’t know you could do that!” Pidge whooped, grabbing the controls and urging Green to push off the asteroid towards the teludav gate. “Why have we never done that before?”

A flash of chipped blue crossed their mind, and Pidge grimaced. “You need new lenses?”

A sound like dry leaves blowing across hard ground, affirmative but sad, echoed from the back of Pidge’s mind and they made a soft, wounded noise as they pressed their head back against the pilot’s seat. It was alright, they could ask the olkari to look at Green’s internal teludav and manufacture new lenses out of the spare and scrap materials from the giant teludav they’d used in the assault on Zarkon’s base. Green would be whole again, and if there was enough they could see about getting the other Lions re-fitted as well.

“So, uh...” Matt’s voice jarred Pidge back to reality, and they looked up at him with a sheepish smile.

“Sorry, Green was telling me about some repairs she needs when we have a chance.” they tilted their head, recalling the last time they’d wormholed without the castle. “I think the other Lions might need them too. At least, Blue probably does.”

“Okay but, this?” Matt gestured at the swirling blue beyond the viewscreen. “Explain.”

“Oh, we’re travelling by teludav.” Pidge grinned. “It’s altean tech, super old.”

“So why does it look like we’re pulling Warp 9?”

Pidge grinned wider. “Because right now we’re breaking the laws of physics as humans know them.” they folded their arms behind their head and slouched slightly in their seat, grinning up at their brother. “Teludav is the Altean word for opening a controlled, artificial wormhole and coating it with tempered quintessence, the blue stuff, to keep the channel chronologically synchronised with both ends.”

Matt’s jaw dropped, eyes all but bugging out of his skull, and Pidge did their level best to commit the sight to memory. It wasn’t often they got to one-up Matt so soundly, which made the look on his face something next to priceless. Green’s laughter radiated through them like long rustling grass, and the click of autopilot disengaging was enough to drag Pidge’s attention back to the viewscreen, the smile fading from their face. Three ticks to exit, two, one... the blue of the teludav channel in their peripheral vision faded into star-speckled space right on cue, while the majority of the viewscreen was taken up by a now-familiar planet.

“Pidge, where are we?” Matt breathed.

“Home base of the Voltron Coalition.” Pidge glanced up at their brother, a small smile pulling at their lips. “Welcome to Olkarion, Matt.”

“It’s beautiful.” he breathed as they began their approach.

“It really is.” Pidge nodded. “I can’t wait to show you around.”

Matt didn’t respond to that, and Pidge glanced up at him again. He looked almost worried, though they couldn’t fathom why. “After you show me Olkarion... I have something to show you.”

“Alright.” they smiled brightly, and turned back to Green’s controls. They could hardly wait!

\---

“Is it always like this?” Matt asked as Pidge pulled him out of the lounge-turned-debrief-room.

“More or less.” Pidge shrugged. “Though, Zarkon turning on Lotor was pretty new. Wish I knew what that was about.” they frowned, but perked up when Matt rested a hand on their head. “Oh, rooms!”

“Huh?” Matt’s hand lifted, and Pidge twisted to catch it by the wrist as they danced forward to stand facing him.

“You need a room!”

A strange expression crossed Matt’s face, like he wanted to laugh or smile but couldn’t quite do it, but it was gone as quickly as it came. “Guess I do.” his mouth quirked in a wry smile, one he usually wore when he was humouring them. “Mind showing me where some rooms are that aren’t full of your space junk?”

“Parts, not junk.” Pidge huffed.

“Suuuure.” Matt drawled, and Pidge jabbed him in the side. He staggered a step, but only one, then collapsed dramatically against the wall. “Ack, I’m down! Felled by my own little sister!”

Pidge laughed, and kicked at Matt’s hip. “Get up, you dork.”

“I can’t, I’ve been slain by my own traitorous blood.” he flopped onto his side, flinging an arm dramatically across his eyes, and Pidge only managed to bite back their laughter for a second before doubling over and cackling. Matt lifted his arm slightly, lips curling into a soft little smile as he peered out from under it. He didn’t last long before succumbing to laughter himself, and when he pushed himself upright Pidge fell next to him.

“I missed you.” they said softly, once the hall no longer rang with laughter. Matt was warm at their side, his arm around their shoulders holding them close.

“I missed you too, Katie.” he tightened his grip, pulling their head against his chest and tucking his chin over their unruly hair. “You and Mom both, every day since we got kidnapped.”

Pidge twisted, gripping at the far edge of his breastplate and pressing their face into the worn metal. He was safe, he was _here_. They just had to find Dad, and then once the Empire was defeated for good they could go home and their family would be whole again. More than whole, with the addition of the alteans and the other Paladins. Matt’s other arm came up to hug them properly, and Pidge’s throat hitched around an awful, wet sound that wasn’t quite a laugh.

“Hey, hey.” Matt soothed, one hand coming up to smooth down the back of their hair momentarily. “I’m here. And now that the two of us are together, we’re going to find Dad in no time.”

“Yeah.” Pidge sniffled, blinking back tears as they pulled away to see their brother smiling at them.

“But first, how about we find me a room that’s close to yours?” he suggested. “I actually kinda missed hearing you snore across the hall at night.”

Pidge punched him again, this time glancing their blow off his breastplate as they blinked away the last threats of tears. “I don’t snore.” they protested, the argument near rote after a lifetime of repetition.

“You do. Like a chainsaw.” Matt nodded confidently, and Pidge pushed off him to stand up.

“ _Lies_.”

“Ask the other Paladins, I’m sure they’ll tell you the same thing.”

Pidge flipped him off. Matt laughed, and rolled to his feet with an easy grace. “But for real, I’d like a room near yours.”

“Good, because the only guest rooms I can find in this place without my HUD map are the ones around the corner from the Paladin quarters.” they started off down the hall, and Matt’s footsteps echoed just a few paces behind them.

“After I’ve got a room, though, we do need to talk.” Matt said, sounding very much like he had when Mom made him apologize for something he wasn’t sorry about.

“After we find you a room, I need a shower.” Pidge stretched their arms over their head, not breaking stride. “Idunno about your armour, but the Paladin flight suits have some weird self-cleaning shit installed to keep them from getting stinky and it activates when I get sweaty and makes my skin feel all weird and gross until I can shower it off.”

“I could probably use a shower too...” Matt mused.

“Just make sure you’re not late for dinner.” Pidge grinned over their shoulder. “Hunk’s probably made something really complicated and tasty to try to keep his mind off of that shit we saw today.”

“After dinner, though.”

“After dinner we can catch up.” Pidge faced forward again, leaving their arms tucked casually behind their head. “I slept, like, six whole hours yesterday so we can stay up talking aaall night.”

Matt sighed, and let out a tired chuckle. “Dad’s gonna skin me if I let you keep that shit up, y’know.”

“Yeah, but consider this.” Pidge spun on their heel to walk backwards, so Matt could see the smirk which spread across their face. “I know where the kousa is on this ship, and you don’t.”

“You are an evil, evil little gremlin child.” their brother glared at them.

“I’m a little sister. Part of the job description.” they smiled cheerily, and twirled back around to keep leading the way, humming a little snatch of music from some show they’d watched with Matt years and years ago. He was here, whole and alive and even cooler than before, and remembering that fact put a spring in Pidge’s step.

Today was a pretty good day.


	2. Chapter 2

Pidge flopped down across the foot of Matt’s bed with a contented sigh, letting their eyes slide closed as they sank into the mattress. Screw pride, they were totally asking to sleep here tonight. The bed was plenty big enough, and it was way softer than the ones in the Paladin quarters. Which was pretty dang weird, considering the previous Paladins had all been rulers. Maybe they’d all liked their beds hard? Something to ask Coran sometime.

Pidge lifted their head with a frown when the mattress didn’t dip with Matt’s weight, then slowly pushed themself up to sitting. Matt was still standing a few feet away, looking distinctly uncomfortable in the altean clothes they’d scrounged up together from various closets while waiting for dinner. “Matt?” they ventured, leaning forwards slightly. He shifted his weight to his right leg, and curled his fingers around his left arm like he was looking for something before letting his hand fall to rest on his hip.

“Do you remember that one time, when you were in second grade, and Mom let you walk to school by yourself because I was sick and couldn’t walk with you?” he asked, eyes locked with theirs. Pidge shook their head slowly, barely breaking eye contact.

“Does it matter? That was years ago.” Pidge tried to shove down the feeling of Wrongness, but it kept making the hair on their arms and the back of their neck prickle. “Mom let both of us stay home sick a whole bunch back then.” they paused, and the expression on Matt’s face made their gut churn uneasily. “Why do you remember it?” they asked slowly, and Matt sagged a little in clear disappointment.

“Because I wasn’t actually sick, that day.”

Pidge opened their mouth to ask what Matt meant, and promptly clapped a hand over it to keep from screaming. Matt was... he wasn’t Matt. Matt looked like Matt, their brother, clearly the son of their parents. Matt didn’t have skin that rippled in and out of focus to allow him to grow taller and broader, didn’t have hair that looked as coarse as twine and fell in long ropes down his spine, didn’t have purple skin or golden eyes or teeth sharp enough to rip flesh from bone.

“Who are you?” they breathed, voice shaking slightly. A terrible thought occurred to them, and they lurched to their feet to lessen the difference in their heights at least a little bit. “Are you one of the rebels?” they asked, chest growing tight. “Is my brother...” they couldn’t say it, couldn’t force the word past their lips. They had believed in that code, believed that it would lead them to the person whose gravestone it marked. They’d been a fool.

Large arms caught them before their knees could give out, and the part-galra sat them down gently on the edge of the bed before crouching in front of them. Its legs were wrong, bending in ways they’d never seen on a larger biped, and Pidge found themself staring at its feet. Was this why it had wanted altean clothes? So its suit wouldn’t be destroyed when it transformed?

“Pidge? Hey, Pidge, look at me.” the alien spoke in Matt’s voice, and Pidge squeezed their eyes shut as burning hot tears welled in them.

“If he wanted you to console me, you’re doing a really shitty job of it.” they choked out.

“Oh, Pidge.” those huge arms wrapped around them, and they shoved the alien away before it could tighten its grip.

“Just stop!” they snapped as they shot back to their feet, hot trails of wet tracking down their cheeks even as they blinked furiously. “Stop acting like you’re him!”

“Pidge...” the alien gave them a forlorn look, not moving from where it had been knocked on its ass. “I’m not pretending, it’s really me.”

“No.” Pidge shook their head. “No, you’re not my brother. My brother and I were normal, we’re _human_.”

The alien winced, averting its eyes. “I used to think that too.”

“Please, just-” Pidge’s voice caught on a sob, their shoulders falling and arms hanging limp. “Just stop.”

“Pidge, please.” the alien reached out again, but this time only took one of their wrists delicately in its large fingers. “What can I say that will convince you it’s really me?”

“Nothing. Anything? I don’t know.” their breath caught in their throat, legs shaking as they stared down the alien shapeshifter. “Tell me something only Matt would know, something he’d never tell anyone else.”

“Alright.” the shifter got to its knees, sitting on its heels. “When we got Bae Bae, you cried like a baby and insisted he was Gunther reborn.”

Pidge shook their head. Matt would tell that story to anyone stuck with him long enough to listen to it, someone he trusted to console them on his death would know every embarrassing little story he could remember.

“When you broke your wrist, I was the first one to sign your cast. You covered it in white-out and made me re-do it because you didn’t like the colour pen I used.”

Pidge shook their head again, wrapping their arms around their waist. “It was the glitter.” they mumbled, and the alien smacked its forehead in a move so _Matt_ it almost hurt.

“Right, the glitter.” it groaned. “You know, for someone who only cleaned her room at threat of losing her computer privileges, you really hate that stuff.”

“Not the point.” Pidge said, voice coming out sharper than they’d meant it to. “Tell me something Matt would never have told anyone else.” their chest ached, limbs shaking as their eyes burnt with unshed tears. The shifter still looked just a little bit like Matt, in the shape of its eyes and how its hair fell in its face, and they _wanted_ to believe it. Wanted to have their brother back, even if the galra had taken and twisted and changed him into something that no longer looked human.

The alien sighed, and looked down at the floor. “When we went to Six Flags Fiesta, Mom and Dad let us go off on our own.” it said softly. “We went on every ride you were tall enough for together, and you peed yourself laughing in the bumper cars.”

Pidge felt a flush work its way across their cheeks at the memory. The ride attendant had been so patient and understanding, and it had made them feel infinitely worse.

“You almost broke down crying, so I took you to stand on the bridge over that water ride and we both got soaked.” he chuckled, dry and tired and so familiar it ached. “Busted my phone, too. Mom and Dad were so mad.” he looked up, his smile familiar even with sharp teeth and a noseless alien face. “But they never found out that you wet your pants. Nobody else, not even Taka, knows what happened that day.”

Pidge’s knees gave out, and Matt caught them in his alien arms with ease. “How did this happen?” they choked out, looking up at the alien face wearing their brother’s small, sad smile as he pulled them into his lap.

“When I was your age, I woke up feeling sick. Really badly sick.” his hand moved in careful circles over their shoulder blades. “Mom kept me home from school, and took the day off of work to make sure my first shift went as smoothly as possible.”

“Mom?” Pidge frowned. The way Matt’s coarse hair cascaded down his back did remind them of Mom’s when she used to keep it extra long.

“This body?” he gestured at himself, golden eyes crinkling with a wry smile. “It’s a lot like Mom’s true form.”

“What.” Pidge sat up slowly, pushing away from Matt’s chest. “Matt, are you telling me Mom’s an alien?”

“And I didn’t know until she shifted in front of me for the first time.” Matt said with a solemn nod. “She made me swear not to tell anyone, and taught me how to control my shifting. How to take everything cateloan about me and hide it so deep only a genetic scan ten times the strength of Earth’s most advanced testing would be able to find anything abnormal.”

“Including the purple?” they asked, realizing the second the words left their mouth that it was a dumb question. Matt hadn’t been purple back home, they would’ve noticed.

“Actually, no.” Matt looked down at his hands as Pidge got to their feet and backed up to sit on the edge of the bed again. “Last time I was in this body, I was my normal colours. I’m not sure when I turned purple.”

“Oh, I thought...” they trailed off, and Matt chuckled.

“Thought it was galra experiments?”

They nodded.

“Nah.” he shook his head. “Mom was purple when she shifted to show me her true form, so I guess it’s just something I grew into. Like how baby birds look different from grown-up ones.”

Pidge opened their mouth to ask if he could change back, then closed it again with a snap. They didn’t know, well, anything at all about shapeshifting, but asking seemed immeasurably rude. “Are you-” they started, then looked down at their hands. Matt was their brother, if Mom wasn’t human... “Am _I_ half...”

“Galra?” he asked, and they nodded. “Quarter, more likely. Mom said she was only half catelo, but she never mentioned her other half. Guess I know why, now.”

“But, why did she only tell you?” Pidge asked, trying to keep the hurt out of their voice.

“Because you might not be like me, like us.” Matt said softly, moving to sit next to them and laying his four-fingered hand over theirs. “I shouldn’t even be telling you this right now, but, well...” he trailed off with an awkward chuckle. “We’re not exactly in Kansas anymore, and Mom’s not here to help if you _did_ inherit her shifter genes.”

“So you’re only telling me to warn me?” Pidge frowned, pulling their hand out from under Matt’s and tucking it against their chest. “I thought we didn’t keep secrets from each other. Not important ones, anyways.”

“Katie, can you honestly tell me you wouldn’t’ve told your friends at school at you were half alien?” Matt asked. Pidge looked away. “Back home, Mom and I couldn’t afford to let anyone know. Even now, you can’t tell anyone.”

“Why not?” Pidge frowned harder, eyebrows drawing in towards each other. “It’s not like the existence of aliens is a secret to anyone here.”

“We’re twenty five percent _enemy_ , Katie.” Matt gripped their shoulder firmly.

“And what about it?” they fired back.

“Please, Katie.” Matt grabbed their other shoulder and twisted them to face him. “You can’t tell the others.”

“Not even Shiro?” they asked, and Matt shook his head violently.

“ _Especially_ not Taka.” he insisted before his shoulders slumped. “Just, please, promise me you won’t tell.”

Pidge looked up at their brother’s face, taking in the way his gold eyes darkened almost to brown around the pupils, the way his brows and lips drew into a familiar expression of concern. “Alright.” they said softly, and he heaved a sigh of relief. “But you have to tell me _everything_ mom told you about cateloans.”

“Shoulda known there’d be a catch with you.” he huffed, dropping his hands from their shoulders and sitting back. The edges of his lips pulled up in a small smile, and he ran a hand back through his shaggy bangs. They only stayed out of his face for a second before falling back down, and Pidge chuckled. “Where do you want me to start?” he asked, and they tilted their head.

“Uhhh, shit, I’m blanking.” they muttered, wracking their brain. “Oh, how long do cateloans live?”

“Not that much longer than humans, I think. Not that it matters much to us, we’re half human.”

“And soldiers to boot.” Pidge chuckled grimly. Green rumbled an admonishment like creaking branches in the back of their mind, and Pidge shook their head. “Sorry, uh, how about the shapeshifting? How does that work?”

Matt grinned at that, sitting up straighter. “Okay, so if the human body was a computer, DNA would be the OS right?”

“And the BIOS, and all the other base code.” Pidge nodded.

“Well, cateloan shapeshifting is like running a virtual machine. Only instead of running a second OS over your existing one, you’re running a different set of DNA.” he pressed a hand to his chest with a dry smile. “This is my base code, so to speak.”

“So, when you want to look like-” Pidge stopped themself before saying You, because Matt did still look like himself, just not the way they’d known him their whole life. “A human again, it’s like flipping a switch?” they finished awkwardly. Matt shook his head.

“More like rebuilding the VM from the most basic building blocks.” he said bitterly. “When I first got my powers it took a lot of checking in the mirror to make sure I looked like me when I turned back, and then some mental effort to stay that way. Took me the better part of a year to get my transformation down to muscle memory.”

“So, wait...” Pidge’s eyes widened slightly as a terrible, _amazing_ idea came to them. “In theory, you could make yourself look like someone else?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Matt shrugged. “Mom only ever taught me how to stay looking like myself, though. Why bother learning skills you’ll never get to use, right?”

“Because if there’s two of me, imagine the _pranks_ we could pull on the others.” they grinned. Matt blinked, then chuckled, and before their eyes he started to change. It was hard to make their eyes focus on the details of his body, but he was definitely getting smaller and paler, his hair shortening as it went from deep purple to a familiar golden brown. When their eyes could focus on the details again, Pidge couldn’t help but grin. In front of them on the bed sat a near-perfect duplicate of them.

Matt smiled back, and looked down at himself. “Wow, you really haven’t grown much since we left, have you?”

“Fuck off.” Pidge laughed, and gave him a shove. He toppled over with a yelp, and they laughed harder. Matt pushed himself up with a huff, and his body went weirdly out-of-focus again as he grew closer to his normal height, his hair shifting shade and cut until it looked like it should. “But seriously, you’re a _shapeshifter_. I mean, it’s not like fucking with the rest of the team is _hard_ , but with you around we can pull off some super crazy tricks. And once I grow into it too-”

“I hope you don’t.” Matt said softly, and Pidge stopped mid-sentence.

“What?”

“I hope you don’t grow into these powers, Katie.” he repeated, louder this time. “Do you know how exhausting it is, looking human all the time? If I want to look like myself and not a huge purple alien, I have to keep part of my brain concentrated on staying shifted. You don’t have to do that, you just _are_.” he looked at them beseechingly. “I could never wish this on anyone, least of all you.”

Pidge opened their mouth to argue, then shut it silently. Matt was being serious. Really serious. He’d had to live for something like a third of his life with this alien form locked away inside, unable to tell anyone. “Oh.” they said softly, recalling how hard he had hugged them when they told him to call them Katie for the first time. How insistent he’d been that Mom would understand.

“But if you did inherit Mom’s shapeshifting, I’ll be here to help you learn to control it.” Matt laid a hand over one of theirs with a small smile, and Pidge felt their own mouth tug up in response.

“Can I ask some more questions, though?”

“Go ahead.” Matt shrugged, sitting back with a small smile. “Ask me anything.”

Pidge weighed their options for a few seconds, then grinned. “So, have you ever jerked it as an alien?”

“O-kay!” Matt stood and grabbed them by the arm. “That’s enough questions.”

Pidge laughed, letting Matt pull them to their feet and march them towards the door of his room. “You said anything!”

“I’m not talking about that with my baby sister!” he pushed them out into the hallway, the door thudding shut behind them and clicking as it locked. Pidge sniggered, and was still smiling like an idiot when they collapsed onto their own bed. Matt was still Matt, even after everything the universe had thrown at him. He was half alien, _they_ were half alien, but somehow that didn’t seem to matter too much at the moment. Keith was half galra, visibly so since that one planet with the costumes, and that hadn’t affected their teamwork much at all.

Though, if the arachi juice had forced Keith’s alien genetics to the fore, why hadn’t it done the same for them? Pidge frowned up at the ceiling for a minute, then rolled onto their side and dragged their laptop into a comfortable range. Time to do some digging.


	3. Chapter 3

Not mentioning that they and Matt were half alien wasn’t hard at all, really. There were other things to focus on, missions and planning and stuff that kept them all busy, and only when they got a call from the Blade were they reminded of it. As much as Matt had made it out to be a big deal, being half alien didn’t really seem that... important, compared to being a Paladin.

Waiting for their powers to come in, on the other hand, was hard as hell. They read every file on cateloan biology they could get their hands on, which was a frustratingly small number since apparently they came from a species who had all been paranoid xenophobes ten thousand years ago, and most of the newer data they’d picked up was either irrelevant or unusable. Pidge flopped down on their bed with a groan, and curled up around their laptop. Good ol’ Gar, thrown halfway across the universe with them and adapting just as well.

“Maybe I’ll try patching some more altean memory into you, next.” they muttered, stroking the edge of the laptop’s screen. A popup flashed in the lower right, and they tapped the box to see what folder had finished converting this time. “Olkari, huh?” Pidge flicked over to their translator app, pulling its translucent window up to cover the whole screen. Academic articles, from... they tapped on the displayed time in the corner of their screen, popping up the expanded view that included standardised galactic timekeeping.

These articles were something like a century old, probably a bit more; they didn’t have the conversion from deca-phoeb to earth year memorised quite yet but it was close enough it didn’t usually matter. Tapping into the folder, they ignored everything related to math, science, and tech. Old tech was fascinating, but low priority right now. It took a few more folders to reach the collection of papers filed under Interspecies Studies, and then they began to scroll. Some of the files they bookmarked for later reading or distributing to the others, but most they scanned right past.

Finally, almost two thirds of the way through the list, they found one that looked promising. Shifters in Diaspora, A Study of Genetic Distribution Across... the full title was cut off by the column’s width, but it was more than enough for Pidge to open the file in a new window. A quick scan of the rest of the folder turned up nothing of particular interest, and they minimised it before fullscreening the article. Study of Genetic Distribution Across the Iluiv Cluster. Pidge sat up sharply, crossing their legs and pulling their laptop onto their knees. Iluiv was the star cluster that Catela’s solar system belonged to. Scrolling down further, they scanned the table of contents almost desperately.

A breathless laugh punched out of them when their eyes found the word Cateloans on the page, and Pidge curled forward over their laptop with a gasp. The top of the screen pressed against the front of their shoulders,and when they sat up they shoved the screen back to a better reading angle. Thankfully the ToC worked like the ones on wikipedia, each topic being a hyperlink to that part of the paper, and Pidge scooted back to lean against the wall as they scanned the academic jargon.

If these numbers were accurate, and Pidge was inclined to believe they were, then the chances of them _not_ developing shifter abilities were negligible. They were at least a quarter catelo, which gave them a five year range in which their abilities might manifest. Apparently Matt was an early bloomer, the lucky bastard. Now that they thought about it, he’d hit puberty kinda early too, but they hadn’t had a single sign even before going on hormone blockers at thirteen. If the two were at all linked, then- Pidge’s eyes went wide, and they swore loudly.

The paper theorized that the activation of the shifter gene in quarter catelo and less was linked to physical maturity, specifically to the final approach of a fully grown state. Puberty. The blocker their doctor had insisted on them using for a few years so they could ‘think about’ their decision to go on hormones was going to keep them from getting their shapeshifting for at least another two years! Pidge groaned and slumped back against the wall, dragging their hands down there face. They could get the blocker removed, but that wasn’t a guarantee their alien DNA would come to the fore. It could still take years, Matt’s shapeshifting hadn’t come in until his voice was almost done cracking, and years without a blocker were not years Pidge wanted to think about.

There had to be another way, something that could be used to force-activate their cateloan DNA the way arachi juice had forced Keith’s galran genes to the fore. Looking back at their screen, Pidge scrolled further down. Shapeshifting like this must’ve evolved as some kind of protective measure, so there must be some way to- Pidge grinned, and highlighted a section of the paper for more detailed translation. “Bingo.” they murmured, and pulled out their phone to copy down the information.

The real trick would be avoiding Matt and Coran’s suspicion if some of the riskier methods didn’t pan out, but they could handle it. Upside to having a reputation like theirs, they could get away with a whole bunch of stuff just by calling it a personal project, or plain old curiosity. It’d take some time to get the materials for the more elaborate ones together, but others they could start trying, hell, tonight if they wanted. Tomorrow seemed like a better idea, though. If they tried to meditate right now they’d just end up falling asleep.

Green creaked in the back of their mind, old trees in a windstorm urging them to get some sleep, and Pidge lifted Gar off their lap to set nearer the edge of the bed. Sleep did sound like a good idea, after a day like today. Tomorrow, they could start looking into how to activate their alien DNA, and all the powers that came with it.

\---

Meditation, unsurprisingly, did nothing. Catelo brains were wired differently from human ones, and Pidge was pretty damn sure their brain was human. They couldn’t just, hack into their own genome by force of will and shuffle things around to their liking. If humans could do that, well, things would be pretty different. They probably would’ve developed helix-based data storage a lot sooner, and that ripple effect might’ve... well, it would make a good setting for a YA novel if nothing else. The important thing was, meditation didn’t work, so they crossed it off their list. Up next were the ones that required Ingredients, most of which seemed meant for consumption or extended exposure.

It was fascinating, in a way, how much and how little variation there was. Some of the things listed weren’t even in the castle’s database, which made looking into where to get them... interesting, to say the least. They kept an ear open in marketplaces, and a small bag of scrounged-up GAC tucked in one of the hip pouches of their armour. The first thing they tried was too bitter to choke down, while the second just made them puke. The third, once they worked out how it was meant to be used, gave them a splitting headache that lasted a day and a half, but not so much as a hint of shapeshifting powers. It sucked, big time.

After the fifth bout of puking, Pidge scratched out the rest of the things involving ingredients. Whatever these things were, they were obviously catered to the non-catelo parts of the interviewed subjects. That only left the incredibly complicated methods, and the incredibly dangerous ones. The complicated ones, well, they were complicated. Needed lots of space, or time alone, or exotic components which might not exist anymore. All of which were in things in painfully short supply, nowadays. Having Matt around certainly helpful at times, and hilarious at others, but it was like he had an extra sense for when they were about to do something.

Which left them with the dangerous options. A small section of catelo interviewed for the paper had reported their shifting kicking in on pure instinct in life-threatening situations, most of which were functionally impossible to recreate without tipping off Matt that they were about to do something he’d object to. And the ones which weren’t impossible were, well... they’d need a spotter in case their shifting didn’t kick in, otherwise Voltron would be down a Paladin, and with the final battle looming imminent that was the worst possible thing. Or at least the most dickish.

They couldn’t ask one of the others to spot them, though, because that’d be breaking their promise not to let the others know. Which meant... ooh, they could make something that would activate a life-saving counter-measure when they stopped pushing a button, so if they passed out without their powers activating and their finger slipped off the trigger they’d be brought back to consciousness. Green made that sound like creaking branches in the back of their head, and Pidge facepalmed. Of course! Green had some control of their flight suit, independent of their bond. Green could, say, expunge all water from their suit, fill their helmet with air, and contract sharply enough to heimlich them.

That settled it. Soon as they could manage, they’d go hunt down the pool and go for a little dip.

\---

“This seemed a lot less dumb when I wasn’t standing on the edge of the pool.” Pidge muttered, half to themself half to Green. Green’s reassurance was like gently swaying branches, a soft brush of leaves against their mind accompanied by a gentle squeeze of the flight suit around their middle. Right, they had a safeguard in case their shifter powers didn’t kick in. No matter how this went, they’d be fine. Closing their eyes, they exhaled until their lungs were nearly empty, and stepped forward.

The water closed around them immediately, perfectly warm, and they kept exhaling as they sank. Their lungs emptied before they hit the bottom, but despite the increasing pressure in their chest they couldn’t inhale. Some ancient instinct, they supposed. Green’s presence brushed against their mind like the softest of flower petals, and they let out the very last of their air before trying to breathe in.

The pain was immediate, forcing their eyes open as water seared down their throat and into their lungs. They coughed, their body trying to expel the water but only drawing more in, and their eyes warmed with tears as their vision began to fade. Green made a sound like dry stalks rattling together, her concern wrapping around Pidge like a cloak, and they let their eyes slide shut. With Green watching out for them, everything would be okay.

-

-

-

-

-

Pidge woke to firm pressure on their chest, and promptly rolled over onto their side to retch, lungs burning as water was forced out of them. Their suit constricted slightly, Green helping the process along, and Pidge felt at their neck as they gasped for air. Smooth, under the fabric of their flight suit. No gills. They lowered their hand to feel at their side, and something wrapped firm around their wrist.

Belatedly, Pidge realized they weren’t at the bottom of the pool. Stomach sinking, they turned their head and found Matt glaring at them, hair plastered wet to his head and eyes brimming with tears. “What the hell were you doing, Katie?!” he yanked on their wrist, and they turned to face him, rising to their knees as they twisted.

“Matt, it’s alright.” they pulled their wrist free. “Green had me.”

“Alright? _Alright_?! You almost drowned!”

“Everything was under control, I promise.” Pidge held up their hands. “I’m not an idiot, Matt.”

“Are you _absolutely_ sure?” he snapped, grabbing them by the wrist again. “Because whatever you were doing, it sure as hell didn’t look controlled to me.”

“I was trying to-”

“To what, Pidge?” Matt snapped, gripping their wrist harder. “Give me a heart attack? Make me find Dad on my own and explain to him why I don’t have you with me?”

Pidge opened their mouth to retort, then shut it and looked down, heart sinking. They hadn’t thought about that, about what might’ve happened if this method failed like all the ones before it. “I just-” they coughed, a wet sound that made their already burning lungs hurt even more. “I wanted to be like you and Mom.” they mumbled.

“Oh, Katie.” Matt pulled on their wrist, drawing them into a tight hug. “You’re already like us in all the best ways.”

“Not _all_ the best ways.” they muttered, coughing weakly again. The water seemed to be out of their lungs, but they had a feeling Matt would make them take some pod time anyways.

“You don’t want this power, Katie.” Matt murmured, rubbing a hand in short, gentle strokes over their spine. “It’s so, so exhausting. I’ve been tired since I was fifteen, and until I got the hang of holding a shift I could barely focus in school. You’re a Paladin, you can’t afford that. The _universe_ can’t afford it.” he leaned back, hands moving to their shoulders to hold them at arm’s length. “Please, don’t try to force it. Enjoy being normal while you can.”

“But I’m _not_ normal.” they frowned, lifting a hand to grip Matt’s wrist. “Earth is light-years away. The only humans in this whole sector are either on this ship or off with the Blade of Marmora, and Keith only half counts.”

“Hey.” Matt frowned, lifting his free hand to pinch their cheek. “I know he’s weird but he’s still human.”

“Only half.” Pidge pointed out, and Matt blinked in evident shock. “Did nobody tell you?” they asked rhetorically. “His mom was galra.”

“Huh.” Matt let his hands fall to his sides, and Pidge scooted in closer to lean against him again. “That, actually makes sense. I heard he only got into the Garrison because his reflexes were even better than Taka’s.”

“He got expelled.” Pidge said, resting their cheek on Matt’s chest.

“What, when?”

“A few months before we found Blue. Rumour is he stabbed Iverson in the face and booked it.” they shrugged. It made a certain amount of sense, and was kinda supported by the fact that he’d apparently been living in that desert shack for a few months when Shiro fell from the sky.

Matt’s chest shook, and Pidge looked up to see their brother biting his lip, eyes alight with mirth. “Does Taka know this?” he wheezed, and Pidge shook their head with a grin.

“I don’t think it’s ever come up.”

That did it. Matt doubled over cackling, clutching his stomach as pool water dripped from his hair to splash in the puddle they were both sitting in. Pidge giggled as well, and when Matt’s laughter finally abated he wiped his eyes as he sat up. Pidge’s face hurt from smiling, and their cheeks only ached more when Matt beckoned them in for another hug.

“Don’t ever change, Katie.” he mumbled into their hair.

“I won’t.” they nuzzled into his shoulder, heedless of the wet fabric trying to cling to their skin. “At least, not until my implant runs its course.”

Matt made a questioning sound, and Pidge sat up when his arms fell from around them. “I looked into how catelo shapeshifting is normally activated, and for quarters and less, like us, it kicks in during puberty.”

“Good.” Matt brushed their hair back from their face, smiling gently. “That leaves you with, what, two years?”

Pidge nodded. “Something like that.”

“And when you wake up in a body that’s not your own, I’ll be here to help you turn back into yourself.” he moved his hand down to cup their cheek, and leaned forward to kiss their forehead. “And that’s a promise.”

“I still don’t see why I have to hide being half alien from the rest of the team.” Pidge muttered. “They accepted me coming out the first time, and even Shiro didn’t have a problem with Keith being half galra.”

“Better safe than sorry.” Matt stood, pulling Pidge to their feet with him.

“Better to come out than be outed.” they retorted, allowing Matt to steer them towards the doors that lead out into the hall.

“Look, Pidge.” Matt sighed, hand tightening briefly on their shoulder. “You know what it’s like, having to fight for people to see you for who you are. You know how much it sucks. If the others find out what we are, if _Taka_ finds out...” he trailed off, and Pidge nodded slowly. Even if Shiro didn’t hate them, he’d still probably be wary around Matt. They’d only really known each other for a few months, after all, on the way to Kerberos.

“Maybe, by the time I get my shifting, you two will be close enough you don’t have to worry about it.” they smiled, reaching out to hit the door’s operation panel. Matt’s face twisted strangely, like a pained version of the expression he’d made when Pidge helped him pick out a room, and they rolled their eyes. Whatever was going through their brother’s head, it was probably stupid. With a crew this small, even in a ship this big, they were all pretty damn close. Given that Matt was Shiro’s age, and not in his direct chain of command, the two of them would be fast friends before the year was out.

“C’mon.” Pidge shrugged off Matt’s hand on their shoulder. “I wanna change into some dry clothes.”

“Wrong way, Katie.” Matt chuckled, grabbing them by the hair. They yelped, and staggered back as he grabbed both their elbows. “Medical is over here.” he turned them around, and Pidge whined in protest as he started marching them down the hall.

“I’m _fine_.” they protested.

“Then the cryo-pod will spit you right back out, won’t it?” Matt asked rhetorically.

Pidge huffed, and crossed their arms as well as they could. “Jerk.” they muttered, but there was no heat to it. Matt was just doing his job as a big brother, looking out for them in the absence of any older family members. “Hey, are we gonna tell Dad?” they asked as Matt guided them into the elevator.

“I don’t know.” Matt admitted, selecting the floor the examination room and cryo-pod chamber were located on. “But let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now, you’re due for a check-up.”


	4. Chapter 4

“I don’t feel too good.” Pidge groaned, slumping in their pilot chair as Naxzela shrank to nothing behind them.

“Preaching to the choir, buddy.” Hunk grumbled.

“I think we’re all feeling the aftershocks of that gravity, now the adrenaline’s worn off.” Lance agreed.

“No, like, _really_ not good.” Pidge curled up, drawing themself into a ball. “I feel sick.”

Familiar energies brushed against their mind, tropical ocean waters and soft sand and fluffy snow, their team reaching through the Voltron bond to check on them. Each one recoiled quickly, muted sounds of sympathetic pain echoing in three-part harmony over the comms as a phantom breeze ghosted over their skin.

“Has Green’s pod been calibrated?” Shiro asked, and Pidge shook their head.

“Not yet.” they answered, mentally moving Lion cryo-pod updates to the top of their to-do list.

“Then as soon as we get back to the castle, I want you to go to Medical.” Shiro ordered, his tone firm. “Call Coran if you need help.”

“Or, y’kno, I could carry you.” Hunk offered.

“Any of us could, really.” Lance’s grin was audible. “Just say the word, we’ll get you there rapidísimamente.”

“I can walk.” Pidge chuckled weakly. “I just feel like shit.”

“Then let’s get back to the castle as quickly as possible.” Allura said firmly. “Coran, I’m sending you coordinates for a wormhole.”

Pidge curled in on themself tighter, squeezing their eyes shut as a soft boop indicated their comms shutting down. Green enveloped them, her energy winding around them like thick vines, and they groped blindly for the communicator in their pocket. Green’s concern enveloped them, a gentle press of comfort and concern from every side, and they breathed deep as they punched the redial button.

“Hello?” a vaguely familiar voice answered after the second ring, and Pidge had to wrack their brain for a second to pin who it belonged to.

“Olia?” they guessed.

“Speaking. Is everything alright, Paladin?”

“I need to talk to Matt.” Pidge bit back most of a whimper, but they knew their voice was strained.

“I’m here, Katie.” Matt’s voice came over the line a second later, and their chest shuddered in a silent almost-sob. “What’s wrong?”

“It hurts.” they whimpered, Green’s energy wrapping tighter around them. “I think-” a stab of pain radiated through their chest, and they gasped for air. Tears burned in their eyes, sourceless agony ripping into their lungs, and a choked sound escaped their throat as they struggled to breathe.

“Pidge!” Matt’s shout snapped them back to the present, and they whimpered softly.

“Something’s wrong with me.”

“Katie, listen to me.” Matt said, not quite managing to sound calm and in control. “When you get back to the castle, _don’t_ get in a cryo-pod.”

“It hurts.” they repeated brokenly, chest shuddering. It felt like their body was ripping itself apart from the inside out.

“I know, Katie. I know.” Matt soothed, sounding less strained but no less worried. “But you can’t get in a pod.”

Green’s engine rumbled slightly, a gentle vibration running through her cockpit, and Pidge’s body moved as if on auto-pilot. They stood, the action sending a fresh ache through their legs, and let Green nudge them towards the ladder leading down to her mouth ramp.

“Katie?”

“I’m here.” Pidge managed, leaning on the wall as they shuffled towards the elevator. Every step sent shocks up their legs, a tingling static pain that felt like lightning and cramps and fire crawling along their bones.

“I need you to stay on the line with me, Katie. When you get back to the castle-”

“Already there.” Pidge chuckled weakly, tapping the elevator’s call panel.

“Great. I need you to go to your room.”

“Alright.” Pidge nodded, blinking back fresh tears.

“Where are you now?”

“In the-” the elevator came to a smooth stop, doors sliding open. “In the hallway.” they stumbled out of the elevator, and more pain radiated from their shoulder when they slumped against the far wall.

“Good. Keep talking to me, alright?”

“Okay.” they dragged themself forward one small step at a time, biting their lip against whimpers of pain as the agonizing static sensation crawled up their legs.

“When you get to your room, get off as much of your armour as you can.” Matt urged. “Your cuirass, at the very least. Can you do that for me, Katie?”

“I don’t know.” they admitted, a tremor creeping into their voice. The static was radiating out from their lungs, as well as up from their feet, and the parts it had consumed barely felt attached to the rest of their body.

“That’s okay.” Matt soothed. “You’re gonna be okay, Katie. I’ll be there soon, and this will all be okay.”

Pidge made an affirmative sound, and lapsed into silence save their ragged breaths as they pushed past the other Paladins’ doors. Lance’s room, Keith’s, Shiro’s... “Made it.” they mumbled, using their free hand to hit the operation panel. The door slid out from under their shoulder, and they toppled sideways with a yelp.

“Katie! Are you okay?”

“Fuuuck.” they groaned, curling their legs up towards their chest so the door could close. “I’m just, gonna lie on the floor.”

“Katie, no.” Matt chuckled, a fondly exasperated sound they knew all too well. “Your floor’s a mess.”

“Is not.” they huffed, pouting at the communicator still clutched in their numb fingers.

“Is too.” Matt sounded like he was smiling. “Now c’mon, it won’t hurt as much if you’re lying in bed.”

Pidge grunted, and forced themself up onto their hands and knees. It was strange, moving along on limbs which felt weightless and detached while simultaneously being on fire, but somehow they managed to drag themself into bed and flop on their back. “Liar.” they grumbled at the communicator now lying next to their pillow.

“You’ll thank me later, I promise.” Matt sounded like he was smiling again, and Pidge let their eyes slip closed. “Now c’mon, talk to me.” he urged. “How bad is it?”

“Everything hurts.” they whined, rolling onto their side and curling their legs in towards their chest.

“What kind of hurts?” Matt probed, and Pidge knew he was trying to keep them talking, keep them conscious, but that didn’t make it any easier.

“Like static.” they mumbled. “Static and fire. I can’t even feel my legs anymore but they _hurt_.” hot tears leaked from their eyes, and Pidge sniffled pitifully.

“I’ll be there soon, Katie, okay?” Matt soothed, and Green ran a comforting brush of energy down their spine like the gentle touch of a hanging vine. “Just hold on a little longer.”

“Okay.” Pidge blinked hard, chest shuddering again with another silent sob.

“Just stay with me, okay Katie? Stay with me, I’m on my way.”

“Okay.” Pidge repeated hoarsely, more tears sliding free. Their throat ached, tight and spasming as the static crept up from their lungs, and Matt’s stream of soothing words blurred into a comforting drone. Eventually, the door of their room slid open, and the communicator clicked as the call ended. Seconds later they distantly felt the mattress dip, felt the ghost of pressure on their shoulder, and smiled despite the fresh wave of pain the contact brought.

“Katie, I need you to sit up, alright?” Matt urged, his hands gripping their shoulders gently but firmly. Pidge nodded, and as they sat up his hands slid down to release the hidden clasps which held the halves of their cuirass together. It came off easily, once those were undone, and Pidge let Matt guide them down to lie on their front. His hands stroked down their spine, the pressure comforting even as prickles of electric fire erupted in the wake of his touch, and Pidge moaned weakly as he dug his thumbs in just under the nape of their neck.

“I need you to hold still.” he said confidently, keeping pressure at the base of their neck with one hand and moving the other down their back. His other hand came to rest across the small of their back, thumb pressing hard as he ran it back up their spine to the bottom of their ribcage. His other fingers, meanwhile, slid towards their hips, the pressure steady and somehow less painful than before. “Gotcha.” Matt muttered, his hand stilling, and the fingers resting against Pidge’s neck curled gently. “Now, this is going to feel weird.”

“Okay.” Pidge mumbled, their eyes sliding shut. Matt pressed down, his fingers digging into their spine in three places, and a jolt flashed through them that made their whole body spasm. The static feeling increased, sweeping like pins and needles through their whole body, and for a moment they were weightless. It was like when they melded with Green, they could feel their limbs but the limbs weren’t fully theirs, a detached sort of sensation that left their head spinning.

“Katie?” Matt’s hand stroked along their spine, and Pidge felt their flight suit prickle against their skin like thick tights against unshaven legs. “Does it still hurt?”

“No.” they answered, blinking their eyes open as the sensation of partial disembodiment faded. “I feel...” they frowned, sitting up, and- oh, okay, that was weird. They were definitely taller than they’d been a few minutes ago.

“Weird?” Matt smiled wryly, and Pidge nodded.

“A bit.” they looked down at their hands, curling each of their three fingers in towards their palm one at a time before folding their thumb in.

“You’re lowballing it.” Matt grinned, laying his hand over theirs. “The first time I shifted felt _super_ weird, and I didn’t grow as much as you just did.”

Pidge looked down at themself properly, and let out a dry chuckle. “Guess it’s a good thing I’m wearing altean clothes, huh?”

“Probably.” Matt nodded.

Pidge moved slowly, hyper-aware of every action as they tested out their new body. “I bet I’m as tall as Shiro now.” they muttered, startling a burst of laughter out of Matt.

“Just about.” he agreed. “Now, you wanted to learn how to shapeshift?”

Pidge grinned, sitting up straighter. “Hell yes.” they cocked their head as a thought occurred to them, and made to stand. “But, not just yet.”

“You’re still you-coloured.” Matt assured them.

“I wanna see what I look like, though.” Pidge pushed themself up off the bed, and wobbled for a second as they adjusted to their new center of gravity. Their legs moved strangely, and it took a couple stumbling steps for muscle memory to kick in. Or, actually it must’ve been some kind of genetic memory, considering they’d never walked in this body before.

Matt chuckled, and Pidge shot a glare at him over their shoulder as they picked their way carefully through their room. It was definitely harder to navigate at this size, they’d have to rearrange some stuff to make sure nothing got underfoot. Thankfully they didn’t have to duck to get through the door to their bathroom, as some of the senior Blades had to duck through a few of the castle’s lower doorways, and two steps took them to the edge of the sink.

An unfamiliar face stared back at them, and Pidge clutched the sink tighter as the world spun slightly. The face in the mirror was theirs, logically they knew that, but it was also almost completely alien. They hadn’t gone purple and gold, as Matt said, but somehow that made the dissonance even greater. They blinked, their reflection blinked. Hair fell in long, messy waves on either side of their face, which was too... angular? No, their cheeks were still soft, but it was like someone had taken the lower half of their head and squished it into something more protruding, something which, when they turned their head, had a profile that looked almost stylised compared to a human one.

They lifted a hand, and ran their fingers through their hair. Even through the gloves, it felt like twine, coarse and heavy and falling to halfway down their ribcage where it hung free. They could feel more grown in under their suit, a mane of sorts that traced their spine to the small of their back and bunched uncomfortably under the fitted protective fabric. They grimaced, a weird expression on their newly inhuman face, and reached back to try rearranging it through the suit. Untangling it later was going to be the exact opposite of fun, they could feel it.

“I wouldn’t bother.” Matt said from the doorway. “It doesn’t stay tangled when you shift.”

“Is that how Mom always got hers brushed so fast?” Pidge frowned, turning to look at their brother. He’d changed out of his armour, a pair of loose-legged altean PJs sitting low on his skinny hips. Matt cocked his head thoughtfully, then shrugged.

“Maybe?” he lobbed a bundle of cloth at them. “Put these on, shapeshifting’s easier when you’re comfortable.”

“Thanks.” they caught their PJs easily, and once the door slid shut they turned back to the mirror. Pulling down their lower lip, they examined their teeth. A little crooked, but no more than usual, and more blunt than they’d expected. Damn, not even a little bit pointy like Keith’s. Releasing their lip, Pidge turned to removing their armour and underlying flight suit. It was weird, as long as they weren’t looking they could rely on their proprioception and move with perfect coordination. The second they actually looked at themself, though, that genetic muscle memory went out the window.

Thankfully their altean PJs were simple, and resized as they pulled them on. The shirt was a little short when it settled, though it fit fine in the shoulders, and Pidge pulled as much of their literal mane out from under the fabric as they could. They contemplated braiding it, then shook their head and pushed the most unruly strands back from their face with a huff. If tangles didn’t stay through a shift, neither would a braid, and Matt was going to teach them how to shapeshift. It wasn’t worth the effort.

Their room was slightly easier to navigate on the way back, and they sat gingerly on the edge of their bed, acutely aware of how much _bigger_ they were now. The lowered ceiling over their bed was now near enough to their head they felt the urge to duck, and they curled in on themself slightly as Matt turned to face them. His arms were decorated with scars, only some of which he’d told them the stories behind, and they still itched to ask about them but kept their mouth shut as Matt looked them over slowly. They’d have time for stories later, all the time in the universe.

“Shut your eyes, and think about your hands.” Matt said, his voice low and soothing. “Think about your fingers, about curling each one in against your palm one at a time. Index, middle, ring, pinky, thumb.” He spoke with a slow and steady cadence, and Pidge breathed deep as they followed his instructions. Their hands tingled, the same floaty feeling of detachment which had filled their whole body when Matt knocked them from human to alien form, and when they opened their eyes a smile split their face.

“I’ve got all my fingers!” they exclaimed, holding up their hands and splaying the digits to show Matt. He laughed, and went rippley-unfocused for a few seconds before pressing his own purple palms to their own.

“You’re a natural.” he lined his fingers up with theirs, and Pidge realized their hands were nearly the same size. His were bigger, but only barely. “It took Mom half an hour to talk me through that.”

“Well, I’ve had a giant alien robot lion in my head for a while now, plus practice with Olkari tech.” Pidge shrugged modestly. “Not quite the same, but still, it’s practice.”

“Alright, you ready to try your feet?” Matt asked, and Pidge nodded. “Eyes closed.” he reminded, and they nodded as they did so. “Let’s start with your toes.” he said, his voice taking on that low, soothing cadence again. “Focus on them, on how they curl against the blanket. Roll your ankles, remember how it feels to run, the shock that travels up your leg every time your foot hits the ground. The way your knees ache after you kneel too long, the pain when Bae bae jumps up in your lap.”

“Like that time he snatched the hot dog right out of my mouth.” Pidge chuckled, a tingling warmth spreading through their whole body. For a moment they floated, weightless, bouyed by the memory of a simpler time. Green’s energy wrapped around them, sprouted from them, cocooned them like a ball of roots around the remnants of an acorn. When they opened their eyes, Matt was staring at them with open shock.

“Okay, that’s just not _fair_.” he whined, and Pidge realized they were looking up at him. Looking down, they blinked in surprise. They were human again, small and unassuming, completely normal by any Earth standard.

“I think Green helped with that one.” they admitted, looking back up at Matt.

“Cheater.” Matt flicked them in the forehead.

“It doesn’t have to be a competition.” Pidge pouted, crossing their arms. The tingling sensation of shapeshifting swept through them again, and their head spun as they returned to their taller alien form.

“Ha!” Matt grinned, jabbing them playfully in the side. “Knew it, you’re not much better than I was my first day.”

“I _have_ only been a shapeshifter for, like, half an hour? Tops?” Pidge pointed out.

“Yeah, yeah.” Matt waved a hand dismissively. “And really, Katie, you’ve done great.” he smiled, soft and fond, and reached out to ruffle their hair as he rippled and shrank to his human appearance. “But you’ve been up for how long, now?”

They shrugged.

“It’s late, and you went through a hell of a battle, _plus_ your first shift.” Matt moved his hand to their shoulder and pressed gently but firmly, urging them to lie down. “You need rest.”

“Do not.” Pidge huffed, and Matt gave them a Look so similar to Mom’s it nearly made them balk.

“I can and will lie on you, if that’s what it takes to get you to sleep.” he threatened.

“Fine, fine.” Pidge rolled their eyes, and let Matt push them down to lie atop their bedsheets. Once they were horizontal, they had to admit Matt had a point. Today had been _exhausting_ , and their eyelids were already drooping. “Night, Matt.” they mumbled, sleep tugging at the edges of their mind.

“G’night, Katie.” Matt murmured, running a hand through their long, twiney hair.


	5. Chapter 5

Their bed was warm, comfortable, the cool wall at the edge of their bunk balancing out the heat radiating from behind them. Something soft and heavy was draped over their waist, holding them close to the figure at their back. Matt, they realized sleepily, drowsiness slowly clearing like pre-dawn fog under the sun’s first rays. They snuggled back against Matt’s chest, letting out a contented little sound as they drifted between waking and sleeping.

Unfortunately, their mane being scrunched up against Matt’s chest made it impossible to fully drift back off, so Pidge grudgingly blinked awake. Extricating themself from Matt’s sleep-cuddle was easy, even though he’d shifted to his cateloan form after they went to sleep, and they picked their way over to their bathroom with ease. They had to pee, but as they reached for the waistband of their pants they hesitated. Looking like an alien was cool, really cool, but they weren’t quite ready yet to see what kind of junk they had in this body. Shutting their eyes, they exhaled and focused as best they could.

Once the tingle of shapeshifting faded, they yanked down their pants and sighed in relief to see exactly what they’d expected. They did their business, pulled their pants back up, and sidestepped to stand in front of the mirror. Matt had been able to hold a shift after just a few hours of practice with Mom, they should be able to at least get back to their human appearance by the time he woke up. Green murmured like leaves rubbing together in the back of their mind, comfort and reassurance, and an image swam into focus when they closed their eyes.

The picture, the one they kept tucked in the corner of Green’s dashboard. They breathed deeply, and focused on the memory of that picture. Matt’s arm around their shoulders, the wind against their legs, the paper heavy in their pocket day in and day out at the Garrison. Printing a fresh copy on the castle to keep in Green, free of the creases and worn-soft edges the original had gained as a talisman during that year of desperate searching. They shifted, the tingle moving in a distinct wave from the top of their head down to their feet, bare on the cool castle floor.

They opened their eyes, holding the feeling they could only describe as humanity close to their chest, and their mouth fell open as they gasped. Their hair was long again, falling loose past their shoulders in thick waves of golden brown. They lifted a hand slowly, brushing their fingers against a lock which curled against the side of their neck. Their vision blurred, and they lifted their other hand to scrub tears from their eyes. They’d forgotten how much it hurt, to cut their hair short. Their fingers curled, tugging gently, and their breath caught in their throat in a soft hiccup.

Green wrapped them in comfort, winding vines and murmuring leaves, and they brushed their tears away. “Thanks, girl.” they murmured, and examined their reflection in the mirror. Their face still didn’t look quite right, and now that they were paying attention their fingers were off as well. It didn’t take much to shorten the digits and flesh them out from the inhuman spindles they’d formed as, but the face... that was more complicated. They leaned over the sink, tilting and turning their head as they focused on the memory of their human face, the way their nose crinkled when they smiled for school photos and their cheeks puffed up when they made faces with Matt in the photo booth at Six Flags.

They smiled when the shifting stopped, their face settling into something properly human, but the expression only lasted a second. Their face and hair were all that looked human about them, and they grunted in frustration as they stomped their heel on the floor. Old grass rustled in the back of their head, the sound like fond laughter, and Pidge shut their eyes to recall the feeling of their humanity again. Mom’s hugs, Dad’s messages from space, Matt’s arm around their shoulders. They opened their eyes and grinned at their reflection. Wiiith a face just the wrong side of narrow, seating them firmly in uncanny valley territory. They scowled, and physically grabbed their face as they willed it back into a human shape.

The first result looked too much like Mom, the second like Matt, and by the time they had their own human face back on their human form had slipped away again. Pidge let out a strangled shout of frustration, and turned to stomp over to the bathroom door. Whatever, the others had dealt with Keith being half galra, the team could deal with them being a shapeshifter. Hell, maybe they could get some tips from Allura!

Matt was sitting up on their bed when they stepped back into their room proper, and Pidge flashed him their most winning smile. “Morning, sleepyhead.”

“ _How_ are you awake this early?” he groaned, holding one hand in front of his mouth and stretching the other arm straight up. “You should still be wiped, after everything that happened yesterday.”

Pidge made a wordless ‘idunno’ sound, shrugging as they crossed back over to their bed to sit down beside him. “I was thinking I could borrow some of your clothes today?” they ventured, leaning back on their hands slightly. “My shorts may fit, but my shirt would be way too small in the shoulders.”

“Katie.” Matt frowned at them. “Your clothes will fit fine once you shift, that’s part of the point.”

“But I can’t hold a shift like you can.” Pidge pointed out. “And I don’t have all day to practice like you did, either.”

“Pidge, we’ve been over this.” Matt frowned harder, rippling and shrinking until he looked human again. “You agreed to keep it secret, remember?”

“Yeah, but...” they looked down at their hands, their too-thin, too-few fingers. “You don’t want Shiro to know you’re part galra, right? So we just, don’t tell them that bit yet.”

“I’d rather nobody else know we’re part _anything_.” Matt crossed his arms.

“We’re in space!” they exclaimed, throwing their arms up. “Keith’s half galra, Allura and Coran are shapeshifters, why _shouldn’t_ we let the others know we’re aliens too?”

“We just can’t, okay?” Matt snapped, pulling his arms tighter around himself. “I- I can’t.” his voice shook slightly, and Pidge heard a strange sound come out of their mouth which must’ve been the alien equivalent of the wordless little whine they’d meant to make.

“They’d want to see your alien form.” they said softly. The part of himself he’d been taught to hide, to fear others discovering. Their body tingled, and Green wrapped around the feelings of humanity and self like roots around stone, holding them in place.

“They can’t know.” Matt hugged himself tighter, and Pidge moved to wrap their arms around him.

“I won’t tell them.” they murmured, and Matt loosened his arms to slip them down around their shoulders. “Not until I find a way to keep them from asking you about it.”

“Guess that’s all I can ask for, isn’t it?” Matt chuckled, resting his chin on top of their head.

“You’ll have to tell Shiro eventually.” Pidge pointed out as they loosened their grip, stepping away when Matt released them from his embrace.

“Not necessarily.” Matt shrugged, and Pidge shook their head with a sigh. Their hair, they belatedly realized, was back to being short and choppy.

“Out.” they pointed at the door to their room. “I gotta get dressed.”

“See you at breakfast.” Matt called over his shoulder as he picked his way towards the door.

Pidge sighed, and grabbed their sleep shirt by the bottom to peel it up over their head. Their normal clothes would still fit, and with Green helping them stay shifted they wouldn’t have to worry about anything ripping if they slipped up. They shimmied out of their PJ pants as well, tossing both articles to lay on the foot of the bed, and opened the top drawer of the dresser with a hand gesture. Their clean gaff was right were they’d left it, and they had it halfway up their thighs before they paused.

Now that they were paying attention, something felt... different. They reached between their legs with a slight frown, and their heart leapt in their chest. Looking down, a wide smile split their face and a not-quite-human warble-squeal left their lips as they rocked up onto their toes, bouncing on the balls of their feet. The gaff slid down easily, and after a second they tossed it back in the dresser instead of towards the trash. It might come in handy in their alien form, even though they didn’t need it as a human anymore.

The bralette sat snug over her chest, just the slightest bit moreso than it had yesterday, and their shirt and shorts hid the changes completely but Pidge couldn’t quite fight down their smile. Shapeshifting was _awesome_. Now they just had to figure out how much they could reasonably grow every day as a ‘growth spurt’, and how far they could push that before the others started asking questions.

They practically floated to breakfast, and Lance raised an eyebrow as they all but waltzed into the room. “Bit cheery for a Pidge with no coffee in them.” he stated.

“Woke up on the right side of the bed, I guess.” they shrugged. “Plus, Keith’s back!” they gestured to where Keith was sitting next to Allura, across the table from Matt.

“And he brought Lotor with him.” Shiro said darkly.

“Lotor saved my life, he deserves a chance to say his piece.” Keith fired back. It sounded rote, like he’d already had this argument and chosen his stance, but Pidge was still lost.

“Wait, wait, when exactly did Prince Emperor Lotor save your life?” they frowned at Keith, and he looked away.

“Oh, right, you weren’t there for debrief. Cramps and all.” Hunk gave them a worried look. “You’re okay now, right?”

“Better than ever. ” Pidge beamed. 

“This idiot was going to kamikaze Haggar’s battleship before Lotor showed up and made it a non-issue.” Matt said, jerking a thumb in Keith’s direction. Pidge felt their eyebrows shoot up, and Keith looked away.

“It was a last-ditch thing.” he muttered, and Pidge shrugged before sitting down.

“We’re all alive, and we’re all here, that’s what matters.” they said firmly. Lotor could be dealt with later, after breakfast. Right now, they just wanted to eat their food in peace and quietly enjoy their shapeshifted body.

“Are you _sure_ you’re feeling alright?” Matt frowned, and Pidge kicked futilely at him under the table. It was kinda hard to hit him when Hunk was in the way, though.

“I’m fine, Matt. You know I’m fine!” they protested.

“We were all worried about you yesterday.” Shiro supplied. “It’s good to see you feeling better again. Any idea what caused it?”

Pidge shrugged. “Aliens, maybe with magic.”

“That hardly narrows it down, duendecillo.” Lance pointed out.

“Does it matter?” they asked, serving themself some breakfast. “It passed, I’m fine, and y’all can fill me in now on what I missed in the Lotor debrief.”

Looks were exchanged around the table, and Coran was the one to break the silence. “Actually, all we decided yesterday was to keep him under guard on the castle.” he offered. “So, congratulations, you’re up to speed!”

“We’ll be interrogating him on his motives after breakfast.” Allura said coolly, her distaste for the situation perfectly clear.

“Why not now?” Pidge frowned. Surely they all wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

“Because breakfast is important, Pidge.” Hunk frowned at them.

“Yeah, you’re never gonna grow if you don’t eat right.” Matt grinned, smug as anything.

“Keith, can you kick him for me?” they huffed, and Matt’s subsequent yelp was accompanied by a quick little flash of a smile from Keith. Pidge smirked, and set about eating their breakfast. The meal passed quickly, almost in a blur, and before Pidge realized it they were back in their room changing into their flight suit and armour. Combat training was off for the day, as it usually was after major battles, but it was important to present a united front to Lotor. Or, well, as united a front as they could when Matt didn’t have matching armour.

They should figure out where Allura had gotten her armour and machine a set for Matt, for the next time Voltron needed to do a stealth mission. His could be green too, but paler, like his old favourite hoodie back home. Green’s excitement at the possibility was a tangible thing, like flowers blooming amongst the roots helping them hold their human form, and Pidge couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m glad you like him so much.”

Green made an affirmative sound, leaves rustling somewhere high overhead, and Pidge hummed idly under their breath as they clipped their cuirass shut, heading out into the hallway. They nearly walked right past the room they were supposed to meet in for Lotor’s interrogation, absorbed in plans for potential upgrades to fit into Matt’s armour. Thankfully, they literally walked into Shiro before they could go too far, and he caught them by the shoulder before they could stagger back more than a step.

“You okay there?” he chuckled, removing his hand once it was clear Pidge wasn’t about to fall on their ass.

“Yeah, just, thinking about making Matt some new armour.” they shrugged.

“Oh yeah, his birthday is coming up isn’t it?” Shiro mused.

“It is?” Pidge wracked their brain for the date back on Earth, came up empty, and fished their phone from their belt pouch with a huff. “Huh. Well, that gives me some time to fine-tune the design. Maybe I’ll throw in some upgrades to his rebel outfit too.” they mused, cocking their head slightly. Altean-made fabric to change with him when he shifted would be a definite plus, but without the bulk of a Paladin-style cuirass where would the power source for the cloaking field go?

“Well, you can think about that later.” Shiro’s voice drew them back to the present, and they blinked to see him opening the door. Inside was, well, it looked like a marvel drop-cell honestly. They weren’t low enough for it to be releasable into space, though, so they had a feeling the similarity was purely an aesthetic one.

“I thought there wasn’t anywhere to hold prisoners on the castle.” they frowned as they approached the group with Shiro.

“Technically, this isn’t a prison cell.” Coran said, tweaking his moustache. “It was actually a transportation cell meant for animals, and a defunct one at that. Hunk helped me fix the barrier while you were incapacitated last night.”

“Boosted its strength, too.” Hunk grinned proudly. “Nothing short of a nuke is breaking that from the inside.”

“Thank you for that, Hunk.” Allura smiled, but it was tense. “It’s comforting to know Lotor has no way out of there.”

“Yeah, yeah, none of us trust the cabrón.” Lance huffed, arms crossed and eyes glowing ever so faintly. “Now can we figure out what he wants from us?”

“I’m with Lance.” Keith chimed in from his boyfriend’s side, placing a hand on Lance’s elbow. The glow faded slightly, his crystalline freckles flaring instead, and Pidge rolled their eyes. Saps, the both of them.

“Alright, then.” Allura turned to Coran. “If you would drop the sound dampers around his cell, Coran?”

“Of course, Princess.” he tapped a few buttons, and Lotor’s ears twitched slightly. He looked up from his clasped hands, and untangled them to lift one, brushing a lock of hair back behind his ear.

“Come to hear my request, now your little omega is feeling better?” he asked, and Allura frowned.

“Now that our _teammate_ is recovered, we’ve come to hear your terms.” she said firmly. “And we reserve the right to reject them, should you-”

“No need to be modest, Princess.” Lotor grinned, the light catching on the sharp points of his teeth. “I seek Voltron as an ally largely because you are not bound by the old-fashioned thinking of my father. Having an omega among your active troops is far more respectable a difference than condoning the use of child soldiers.”

His eyes, strangely, flicked to Keith at that, which didn’t go unnoticed. Keith bristled, a short growl slipping out before Lance uncrossed his arms to sling one around his boyfriend’s shoulders and Keith managed to quiet himself. “Nobody’s condoning that.” he said firmly, stepping away from Keith to put himself slightly between Allura and Lotor. “We were all cadets before Voltron, legally enlisted and everything, so lay off.”

“Legally- what?” Lotor frowned, looking between Keith, Lance, and Allura for a few seconds before finally settling his gaze on Pidge. “What planet in the Coalition let her enlist in the military so young?”

Matt laid a hand on their shoulder, all but radiating protective fury. “Didn’t you have terms to give us?” he asked, his voice cold.

“I’d like an answer to this, first.” Lotor said, his gaze flicking between Pidge and Keith. “What kind of irresponsible-”

“I didn’t know I was galra.” Keith blurted. “Nobody back home knew, and next time you have a question about me you ask _me_.”

Lotor leaned back, a calculating expression on his face. “And I suppose you were ignorant as well, little green omega?” he asked, as if that was a perfectly innocent question.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Pidge tried to affect a confused frown, but their heart was quickly starting to beat faster in their chest. He knew, he could _tell_ somehow that they weren’t fully human.

“I suppose you wouldn’t, if your galra blood is thin enough to not have affected your height.” he grinned, and Pidge realized every eye in the room was on them now. Fuck.

“Let’s go, Katie.” Matt’s hand on their shoulder tightened, and they felt a slight tremble in his fingers. “I don’t like the sound of what this halfbreed’s saying.” he spat the word halfbreed like a curse, like something unclean, and Pidge’s gut twisted uncomfortably.

“As if you’ve any right to call me that, you mutt.” Lotor’s eyes narrowed, pale brows drawing down and in as he glared.

Matt’s hand tightened further, and Pidge winced as the pressure became painful. “We’re out of here.” he said, his voice still stiff and cold, and pulled back sharply enough Pidge almost lost their footing.

“Hey!” Hunk protested.

“Matt, are you-” Shiro turned, his face softening as he reached for their brother, and Pidge staggered as Matt picked up the pace.

“Matt, let go!” they gripped at his wrist, pivoting on their heel so he was forced to release them or break something, and as soon as they were free they took a step away from him. Hunk was at their side in an instant, flanking them as he did when they stood in formation, only now one of his hands rested on their shoulder opposite where Matt had grabbed them.

“Katie-” Matt cut himself off, eyes flicking from their face to Lotor behind them and back, his mask of impartial disdain rapidly falling apart to reveal naked terror. For a long second they just stared at each other, then Matt whirled on his heel and all but ran from the room, his retreat less one of huffy distaste and more the fleeing of a frightened animal. This wasn’t going to be pleasant.

“Was it something I said?” Lotor asked, all faux-innocent.

“Coran, mute his cell again.” Allura snapped. “We’re taking this discussion elsewhere, first.”

“Yes, Princess.”

“You alright?” Hunk asked softly, and Pidge nodded. His hand fell from their shoulder as Allura strode past and they fell in behind her, and Pidge missed the warm, grounding contact immediately.

“So, what was up with Matt?” Lance asked from in front of them, looking back briefly over his shoulder.

“Yeah, and that whole calling you an omega thing.” Keith frowned, unhooking his arm from Lance’s and dropping back to walk next to them. “Was that, like, him trying to call you a girl?”

“He didn’t call Allura an omega, though.” Hunk pointed out, and Lance’s eyes flickered to theirs before he frowned at his friend.

“Let’s table this ‘til we get where we’re going.” he said firmly.

“Good thing it looks like we’re there, then.” Hunk inclined his head forwards, and Pidge realized Coran had gone ahead to unlock a door for them. The room beyond was like a smaller version of the lounge upstairs, but with an actual table in the middle of the circular sunken couch. It was kinda like a cozy little meeting room.

“Sit.” Allura ordered, and they did, falling automatically into order around Shiro. Keith wound up on Lance’s lap this time, rather than shunted to the end with Matt and Coran as he’d been at breakfast, and Pidge would’ve commented on it but the silence that settled over the room was near oppressive. “Pidge, do you have something to tell us?”

Allura’s voice was soft, barely breaking the silence and doing nothing for the heavy atmosphere. Pidge shifted uncomfortably in their seat. Sure, they’d gone undercover at the Garrison, but that had been after months of preparing a cover story. Lying on the spot was about as far from their strong suit as they could get.

“Hey, whoa, wait.” Lance spoke up before they had to. “You’re not suggesting we actually _listen_ to what Lotor said, are you? Pidge is as human as they come, that dirty little sneak is just trying to buy himself time.”

“Lance.” Shiro frowned sternly at him. “Lotor targeted the Holts for a reason, we need to find out why.”

“And why your brother reacted the way he did.” Allura added, looking straight at Pidge. “So, do you have something to tell us?”

Again, every eye in the room was on them. Pidge swallowed, and shut their eyes with a sigh. If they lied, Shiro would definitely track Matt down and cross-reference it, he was thorough like that. If they lied, they would be found out anyways, and Matt would have to watch Shiro realize he wasn’t human. Better to get Shiro onboard now so they could find Matt and assure him nobody cared he was part galra.

“Actually, I do.” they scooted away from Hunk, until they had a decent amount of room on either side. Green groaned like violently swaying trees, and Pidge brushed the concern aside as they shook their feelings of humanity and self and pulled them free of Green’s stabilising influence. They breathed in, breathed out, and released their transformation. The tingling consumed them all at once this time, their body twisting and stretching in multiple directions as they popped back to their alien form.

“I’m only half human.” they said, leaving their eyes shut. “Matt too. Our mom is half galra.”

Even with their hearing enhanced in this form, the room was silent, as if everyone was holding their breath. They cracked an eye open, shoulders hunching up and head dropping down as they looked around at their teammates, their friends. The only one not outright staring was Coran, who seemed to be contemplating something.

“Would the other side of your mother’s family be cateloan, by any chance?” he asked, sounding less unsure and more like he just needed a confirmation. They nodded, and the ginger altean beamed. “That explains it, then.”

“How so?” Allura frowned.

“Yeah, I’d like to know that too.” Keith, muttered.

“I think we all would.” Shiro said, his tone level and tightly controlled.

“Cateloan children gain their shifting later the more diluted their blood is.” he explained to the others. “And I’d bet my bottom groggery your shifting only came in, oh, a month or so ago?”

“Yesterday, actually.” Pidge fidgeted awkwardly. The Paladin armour felt weird on their larger frame, heavier than they were used to, and some detached part of them wanted to pull it off and find out how it _did that_.

“Why-” Keith stopped, looking down, and Lance pulled his boyfriend into his lap with a soft sound that he definitely hadn’t meant for anyone else to hear.

“Why did you never tell us?” Hunk asked, looking more vaguely hurt than anything else. “After we found out about Keith...”

“I didn’t know.” they said softly. “Until I got Matt back, I didn’t even know I wasn’t fully human, and he made me promise not to tell. Back home, he and Mom couldn’t let anyone know, and he wanted to keep me safe.” they stressed the last part, remembering how all of them had taken to forming up around Keith after he went purple, shielding him from aliens who’d been hurt by the galra and couldn’t believe one of their saviours belonged to the same species.

“I’m going to go find him.” Shiro said, rising to his feet.

Pidge noddedd, and the conversation lulled as Shiro left the room. Matt and Shiro had been coworkers, but they’d been growing pretty close since reuniting out here in space. Hopefully Shiro would be able to convince him that being outed as half alien wasn’t as bad here as it would’ve been on Earth.

“Soooo.” Lance drew the word out, looking slowly from Pidge to Hunk as he absently ran a hand through Keith’s hair. “Hunk, if you’re secretly half alien, now’d be a great time to mention it.”

“Yeah, I’m actually part chameleon-alien with colour-changing eyes and magic tattoos.” Hunk deadpanned.

“I never would’ve guessed you were part kleirdeon!” Coran exclaimed, and Hunk startled slightly.

“I was joking oh my god. Are there actually aliens like that?”

Pidge giggled, grass rustling in their head as Green joined in, laughing along with the rest of the Paladins as Coran launched into an explanation. Things would be a little weird for a while, like they’d been with Keith, but it would pass. Their team had accepted them as they were once already, there was no reason to believe this time would be any different.


End file.
